Decorated transparent article and process of making same.



A. FRIEDRICH.

DECORATED TRANSPARENT ARTICLE AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME. APPLICAHONHLEU JAN. 5. 1916.

1 205 728 Patsnted NOV. 21, 1916.

1&1,

WITNESSES an enlarged TED STATES I OFFICE.

ALFRED FRIEDRICH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR T0 NATIONAL SILVERDEPOSIT WARE CO., INC., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21, 1916.

Application filed January 5, 1916. Serial No. 70,443.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED FRIEDRICH, a subject of the Emperor ofAustria-Hungary, and a resident of the city of New York, borough ofManhattan, in the county and State of New York, have invented new andImproved Decorated Transparent Ar ticles and Processes of Making Same,of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to a transparent article decorated with' goldrendered inaccessible to air but visible through the body of thearticle.

An object of the invention is to provide a transparent article whichmaybe decorated with any desired gold design and in which the gold ofthe design is protected from air or liquids that may be carried by thearticle and thereby produce a more sanitary article.

A'further objectof the invention is to provide an expeditious'processfor decorating transparent articles, such as glassware, with gold, thegold being rendered inaccessible to the action of air.

A further object of the invention is to provide a process of decoratingtransparent articles with gold which isrendered visible through the bodyof the article only.

The invention further relates to a process of decorating transparentarticles with gold insulated from air by silver, the gold remainingvisible through the body of the article.

With the above-and other objects in view, the nature'of which will morefully appear asthe descriptionv proceeds, the invention consists in thenovel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as herein fullydescribed, illustrated and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of the application,similarcharactersof reference indicate corresponding parts in bothviews.

Frigure 1 is an elevation of a glass tumbler embodyin my invention; andFig- 2 is ragmentary section thereof showing a section through thecoatings over the design.

The transparent article which is to be decorated iscoated with liquidgold on that part of the surface where the design is to be formed so asto be visible through the other side of the article. As shown in thedrawing, the transparent article is a glass tumbler 3, the outer surfaceof which is to be decorated at the mouth of the tumbler, and which iscoated with liquid gold on that part of its surface which is to bedecorated. The so-coated article is then subjected to the action of heatin a suitable oven. The coating of gold 4 on the article is then coveredwith a protecting coating 5 which forms the background on which thedesired design with which the article is to be decorated is drawn. Thisprotecting coating leaves the gold visible through the body of thearticle only. It also maintains the gold bright during the process ofdecoration and after it has been decorated.

The protector is formed of a mixture of water, gum-arabic, relief white,glass flux, oxid of zinc, and oXid of bismuth, all ground very line andmixed in water, so that the same can be easily applied with a brush.

This mixture forms a white background on the gold. The design is thendrawn on this white coating with a composition immune to the action ofaqua regia. This composition is preferably formed of asphaltum andturpentine mixed in proper proportions. The so-decorated article is thenetched by dipping it into the aqua regia, which will remove all tracesof the gold protector and gold not'covered bythe composition immune tothe acid. After etching, the article is washed with clean water toremove all traces of acid. The article is then placed into a solvent forthe coating immune to the acid, which solvent is preferably mineral oil;

The

should be removed from the article.

decoration onthe glass, which is formed of the gold coating and the goldprotector is metallized to form a, support for silver, with which thearticle is to be electroplated. This silver support with-which thedecoration is metallized preferably consists of brown gold, gold alloy,glass flux, and borax mixed in proper proportions and ground fine. Thispowder isdusted upon the decoration and the article is subjected to heatto fuse the powder with the gold protector to form a metallic base. Thearticle is then placed into a silver electrolyte and electroplated, thesilver coating 6 formed upon the support cov ering the gold protectorand thereby sealing the gold on the surface of the article and renderingthe same inaccessible to the .air. The only surface of thedecoration-exposed to air is that of the silver coating, which can beeasily cleaned without injuring the gold coating.

Hitherto the gold decoration on glass tableware has been formed on theinner surface by following out the design formed on the outer surface.Since such tableware is usually used'for liquors, the gold on the insidesurface is subjected to the action of the liquor and becomes'tarnishedby the same. Also, the liquor Works its way between the gold and theglass surface of the article and,

in consequence, an unsanitary condition-results which cannot be remediedby an ordinary cleaning of the gold. Further, it causes the golddecoration on the surface of thearticle to become detached therefrom.The formation of the gold design on the inner surface requires aspecialist, for it must correspond with the decoration on the outer.

surface, and in consequence the articles are very expensive. With myprocess the deco: ra'tion is on one surface only. The gold decoration ispositively inaccessible to liquors carried within the tableware, for itis pro-- tected by the glass of the article. It is protected fromtarnish by atmospheric condi- ,tions.by the silver decoration depositedon the gold, to which it is cemented through the medium of the goldprotector. The gold does not need to be polished for it is foreverbright, being rendered visible only by the transparency of the article,and; consequently, it'is everlasting.

In place of decorating the surface of the transparent article with goldit may be decorated with other metals, such as silver or compounds ofmetals, particularly oxids, for the decoration formed on the glasssurface is protected from contact'with the atmosphere, and allothe'r'substances, by the metal electroplated thereupon. Theelectroplated metal may be gold in place of silver, if so desired, for adeposit of gold may be as easily formed on themetallized coating as ofsilver. 5

I c1a1m:

l. A transparent article'having a decoration formed on one of itssurfaces, .the said decoration being formed of a layer of goldcontacting with the surface on which the decoration is formed, a layerof *gold-pro-' tecting substance over the layer of gold, and a layer ofsilver over said gold-protecting layer, said silver layer sealing thegold and design by dipping the article into acid,

whereby the uncovered portions of the goldprotecting coating and goldare removed, dissolving the coating immune to acid, metallizing thedecoration on the article, and

electroplating the decoration with silver.

3. A process of decorating transparent articles which consists informing a gold coating on one of the surfaces of the article, coveringthe gold coating with a coatin for protecting the gold coating andforming a base for receiving a coating of silver, etching the saidcoatings to the surface of the article whereby a decoration is formedthereupon, then plating the non-etched part of the coating with silver.

4. A process of decorating transparent articles which consists informing a gold coating on one of the surfaces of the article, coveringthe gold coating with a coating for protecting the gold coating, whichforms a base for av silver coating, etching in said coatings a design tothe surface of the article, then electroplating the non-etched parts ofthe coatings with silver.

5. A transparentarticle having a decoration formed on one of itssurfaces, the said decoration being formed of a layer of metal 1 incontact with the surface on which the decoration is formed, a layer ofmetal-protecting substance covering the layer of metal, and anotherlayer of metal over said vmetalprotecting layer, said latter metalsealing the first-mentioned metal and the metal-protecting layer on thesurface where the decometal "protecting layer on the surface of thearticle. v

7. A process of decorating transparent articles which consists informing a metal coating on one of the surfaces of the article, coveringthe metal coating with a metalprotecting coating adapted to form abackand the first mew} *chmmmder on flu sun 1i} face of he article.

in testimony wlmmu'i I ha e Rignmi my" name to this specification in M16presence of' two subscribing \YHHPSHPH.

Nit-messes ISAAC FERs'r, I a 5Q LEVY.

